July 1, 2006

Happy Canada Day

This afternoon whilst confined to lying on the floor with my feet up so my swollen toes don’t fall off (if you didn’t catch my post about my bee sting), I turned on the TV and started flipping channels. There’s rarely anything good on at noon on a Saturday, but today is CANADA DAY (where’s my temporary tattoo???) and CBC Newsworld had a special documentary on called The Canadian Guitar.

The one-hour documentary includes interviews with various Canadians — stories of our heritage, our First Nations and our immigrants, and our families. The final masterpiece, debuted today for celebrations in Ottawa, features pieces of Canada’s story: the Golden Spruce of Haida Gwaii, Wayne Gretzky’s hockey stick, an old seat from Toronto’s Massey Hall, Trudeau’s canoe paddle, Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Museum, and Pier 21, among others. The luthier is Hungarian-Canadian George Rizsanyi, whose own history, too, contributed to the beautiful guitar.

The documentary airs again at 7 & 11pm ET today on CBC Newsworld. That’s 4 and 8pm PT on cable 26 for those in Greater Vancouver. I suggest you watch it — tape it, PVR it if you’re out celebrating tonight — and have a Happy Canada Day!

Here’s one more for ya, Canadian Mysteries. Old or ancient mysteries always seem more exciting than current ones, and people seemed to be more strange, like the man climbing mountains to the Yukon in 1931. Yes, indeed, folks… the Holy Grail is buried in CANADA.